SAN DIEGO -- For one night at least, the Padres' offensive struggles felt like ancient history.
Christian Villanueva mashed the eighth homer of his rookie campaign. Franchy Cordero crushed the sixth of his -- a 459-foot moonshot with the highest exit velocity ever recorded by a Padre. And five players tallied multiple hits -- including three from Austin Hedges -- as San Diego cruised to a 12-2 victory over the Mets Saturday night at Petco Park.
Villanueva and Cordero sit first and second, respectively, on the rookie home run leaderboard. Perhaps more encouraging for the Padres were the offensive breakouts from Hedges, Jose Pirela, Freddy Galvis and Manuel Margot -- all of whom had fallen into prolonged slumps.
"To get the momentum like that, then to see the rest of the offense, see all my teammates [do what they did], we all woke up, and we were really getting after it," Villanueva said through an interpreter. "You have to enjoy that."
Villanueva opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first off Mets left-hander Jason Vargas. Margot plated two more with a triple later in the frame.

Three innings later, Cordero erased any doubt with a mammoth three-run homer into the right-field seats -- his third blast of at least 450 feet this season, the most in the Majors. It left his bat at 116.9 mph, the hardest hit baseball for a Padre since Statcast™ began tracking in 2015.
"I've never seen a ball go up there, where he hit that one today," Padres manager Andy Green said. "We seem to say that every other day with Franchy. It's a lot of fun. He's hitting balls no one else hits."
Hedges tacked on a two-run double later in the frame, putting San Diego on top, 11-0. That was plenty of support for rookie left-hander Joey Lucchesi, who struck out six over 5 2/3 innings. He allowed two runs, both on a long home run by Yoenis Cespedes.

The Padres' blowout victory may have come with a price, however. Right fielder William Myers exited the game in the fifth inning with a strained oblique after taking an awkward swing on a foul ball. He appears to be headed for a stint on the disabled list, and his status will be updated on Sunday.
Myers' injury was a sour note on an otherwise excellent night highlighted by standout performances from a trio of youngsters. Lucchesi, Villanueva and Cordero have emerged as three of the sport's top rookies through the season's first month.
"It's fun to watch those three," Green said. "They deserve whatever conversation they're in. We'll see as time unfolds how big a part they can play in us doing something really special here."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Battle at-bat: Villanueva has been working to hone his discipline at the plate, and it was on full display Saturday. He fell behind 1-2 in the bottom of the first inning, before fighting his way to an eight-pitch at-bat against Vargas. He laid off a pair of breaking pitches, balls two and three, before demolishing his eighth homer. He followed that with a seven-pitch walk in the fifth.

Slump-buster: Hedges entered play with three hits in his past 10 games. On Saturday night, he had three hits by the sixth inning. Hedges smashed a two-run single in the second, giving the Padres a 6-0 lead. After his fourth-inning double, Hedges added an RBI single in the sixth, giving him a career-high five RBIs on the night.

HE SAID IT
"I honestly don't know how to describe that [feeling] to you. I just try to put my best swing on the ball, and you see the result." -- Cordero, on his homer
UP NEXT
The Padres envisioned big things for right-hander Bryan Mitchell this season, after he spent the past few years without a defined role for the Yankees. He's yet to live up to those expectations. Mitchell gets another shot Sunday against the Mets, who will send Zack Wheeler to the hill. First pitch is slated for 1:10 p.m. PT.